Yuzvendra Chahal is a 27‑year-old leg-spinner who has had great success with Royal Challengers Bangalore and befuddled Ireland last week.
Photograph: Paul Mcerlane/AFP/Getty Images

The Vincibles of 2018 have departed. The Australian cricketers have left the country, tails between their legs, and several of them will not be seen here again, especially not in next year’s World Cup when the best Australians will either be fit or reintegrated. They have taken their punishment in the most gentlemanly manner after a little tour that will already be discarded from the memory bank, if indeed it registered at all down under.

They have been replaced by India, who will play three T20 internationals and three ODIs against England over the next fortnight. Then, after the usual upheaval in personnel – on both sides –there will be a five-Test series crammed into 42 days.

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Now Eoin Morgan’s side will face a significant white-ball challenge, especially if the sun continues to shine. Traditionally India do not travel well. They are often invincible at home; they sometimes falter on tour. Yet somehow it is unlikely that Virat Kohli will tolerate that for much longer. His attempts to prepare for this tour by playing for Surrey were eventually scuppered by injury but the fact that he was eager to play some county cricket indicates how determined he is to crack England, where he has seldom dominated as a batsman. His intentions were not a bad advert for county cricket, either.

Even in England Kohli will be swamped by fans. He may well have surpassed Sachin Tendulkar as the most deified cricketer of our times. In many ways he is more charismatic because he wears his emotions on his sleeves – unlike Tendulkar, whose inner thoughts remained a mystery. There will be a buzz whenever Kohli comes to the crease.

However, the India team are not overly dependent on Kohli. Their batting lineup against a white ball will be so much more threatening and more experienced than Australia’s. IPL addicts know all about Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik. England may well believe they now have the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world in white-ball cricket, which is probably true, but MS Dhoni is still around to contest that assumption. Dhoni is 36 but he – and his selectors – must still have an eye on the 2019 World Cup. Otherwise he would not be here.

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India’s bowling will also be stronger than the unit at Tim Paine’s disposal, most of whom will be disposed of at the earliest opportunity. There are interesting absentees from their T20/ODI squads since neither Ravi Ashwin nor Ravindra Jadeja, whom we expect to see in the Tests, have been selected. But that does not rule out some mystery and the odd moment of magic from the Indian spinners.

In the series against Australia England’s spinners, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, were Morgan’s key bowlers. Since the white ball stubbornly refused to swing for more than an over or two they were the only men capable of making the ball deviate and they both performed well. One does not have to be a curmudgeonly pessimist to believe that it might be trickier for Moeen and Rashid to cause the same havoc among Indian batsmen.

At 36, MS Dhoni has his eye on the 2019 World Cup. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

The India squad, while possessing two experienced pacemen in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav, have interesting spin options, some of which will be unfamiliar to England’s non-IPL cricketers.

Yuzvendra Chahal is a 27‑year-old leg-spinner who has had great success with Royal Challengers Bangalore. When he last encountered England, in a T20 fixture in Bengaluru, he took six for 25. Kuldeep Yadav is a left-handed wrist-spinner who began life as a fast bowler and, at the age of 23, has already prospered for India in all three formats of the game. This pair befuddled the Irish in Dublin last week, taking seven wickets between them in the first game there. It should be trickier to do the same to the English batsmen at Old Trafford on Tuesday.